Different opinions on the rank of general and provincial police director
There are still many different opinions on the regulation of the highest rank of Major General for Provincial Police Director in the Law on Public Security (amended).
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| Minister of Public Security To Lam |
However, Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee Vo Trong Viet said that specifying the position with the rank of general as in the current Law on Public Security is appropriate. The implementation of the current Law on Public Security on this provision has not encountered any problems; the newly established units with the position of general in the past have been considered and decided by the Standing Committee of the National Assembly.
“However, this issue has been carefully considered by the Government and expressed in the draft Law in the direction of not specifically regulating the position and number of positions with the highest rank of general. Therefore, it is recommended that the National Assembly discuss, give opinions and report to the competent authority for consideration and decision.”
The bill also stipulates the highest rank of Major General for Provincial Police Director. Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee Vo Trong Viet said that there were also three different opinions within the review body.
Accordingly, the first type of opinion agrees with the provisions of the draft Law because it believes that the regulation that the Director of the Public Security of a province or centrally-run city in a locality classified as a type I provincial administrative unit with the highest rank of Major General is appropriate, consistent with the current functions and tasks of the provincial Public Security, as well as consistent with the Party's policy on building and organizing the People's Public Security in the direction of "a strong ministry and a strong province".
However, determining the highest rank of the Provincial or Municipal Police Director is Major General requires adding criteria for strategic position in security, order, security and order situation and specific regulations in the Law.
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| Chairman of the National Defense and Security Committee Vo Trong Viet. |
The second type of opinion proposed to stipulate that all provincial-level Police Directors have the highest rank of Major General because they believe that the functions and tasks of provincial-level Police Directors are equivalent and are under the direct command and management of the Ministry's leaders like the departments under the Ministry; at the same time, ensuring equality and convenience in considering the planning of the Ministry of Public Security's leadership team; ensuring the correlation between department-level leaders and provincial-level Police leaders and still ensuring the total number of generals in the Public Security as determined by the competent authority.
This opinion also suggests considering amending the Law on Officers of the Vietnam People's Army to seek opinions from competent authorities on the general position for commanders of provincial-level military agencies for consistency.
The third type of opinion, according to Mr. Vo Trong Viet, is not in agreement with the provisions of the draft Law because it is believed that the highest rank of the Provincial Police Director must be equivalent to the commander of a provincial military agency to ensure correlation within the political system and between the Public Security force and the People's Army at the local level.
On the other hand, the classification of provincial-level administrative units as type I as in Resolution No. 1211/2016/UBTVQH13 dated May 25, 2016 of the Standing Committee of the National Assembly is not based on security and order criteria; at the same time, there is concern that during the implementation process, the number of provinces and cities classified as provincial-level administrative units type I may increase, leading to an increase in the number of generals.
“The National Defense and Security Committee recognizes that this is an important issue that was decided by the competent authority when drafting the 2014 Law on Public Security. Now the Government proposes to amend and supplement the content as in the draft Law, which needs to be carefully studied and evaluated. We request the National Assembly to study, discuss, give opinions and report to the competent authority for consideration and decision,” said Mr. Vo Trong Viet./.
